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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while a companion grinned knowingly in the background.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a young woman who declared she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had publicly claimed to have never heard of her, asserted he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's resources to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which demanded deference when he walked into a room or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an age when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pushed additional. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

Presently the removal of designations and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary member to lose his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his duty in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but not any of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The message from the royal household was plainly that the stripping of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short communication showed clearly that the monarchy were aligning with the complainant's version of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.